1 Peter

About Peter's first letter

Peter was one of the 12 men that Jesus chose to be his apostles. See Matthew 10:1-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:12-16. Peter's name was Simon, but Jesus changed it to Peter. See John 1:42. ‘Peter’ means ‘a rock’ or ‘a stone’.
Peter wrote this letter to groups of Christians in several different places. All of those places were in the country that we now call Turkey. We think that he wrote it about the year AD 65. That was about 35 years after Jesus died. Peter may have been in Rome when he wrote it. See 1 Peter 5:13.
At that time, enemies were causing a lot of trouble and pain for Christians. These enemies were killing many Christians. As a result, many Christians were afraid. Peter wrote to them because he wanted to help them. He wanted them to be brave. He wanted them to continue to trust Jesus strongly.
In his letter, Peter describes the great things that God has done on our behalf. He says that, as Christians, we will have trouble and pain during our lives on this earth. But we must remember that God knows about all our troubles. And he lets us have troubles sometimes because he wants to make us like Jesus. Jesus had much trouble and pain on our behalf, but he never stopped obeying God. Peter says that all Christians should obey people with authority. And Christians should always do what is right and good.